After Windermere marathon despite my grand ideas of continuing to run a long run every Sunday and keep the miles high I flopped!!

Well not totally flopped, went a little saggy. I cut back a little had some time out and managed 30 mile weeks at a push. The longest long has been 12 miles. I had some lovely runs over the fields with friends, chatting away. I ran a 10k race in a reasonable time, but after training hard for spring marathons I’d been left with a troublesome achey leg which hadn’t stopped me but made the running more uncomfortable than it should have been.

A couple of visits to the Physio and I gave in to the inevitable that at least a weeks rest would be a great idea to help my back which was the cause of the leg pain, to relax. Fortunately I could bare this break and the detox was not so bad because I could get outdoors and exercise using alternative means.

The week before Windermere I had treated myself to a sexy new road bike a Trek Lexa S. I used some of the time I’d usually use to run to get to know her. She’s a babe indeed and is great for getting me outdoors without the impact irritating my back. I’m a complete novice to road biking so I’ve had to learn from scratch. It may seem simple to you but getting to grips with gearing took me some time and I am now working on letting myself relax and zooooom down hills, rather than painfully stop starting with the breaks all the way down.

During my resting (a whole week) I had time to reflect on the last few months of running and I also wrote down for my coach exactly what I’d run prior to the London Marathon which looking at myself I could see was not as solid or committed as I have been previously. Even if you’re motivated you need to be committed to see something through, if you don’t commit you’ll find it hard to find the motivation. (So Dr Steve Peters author of The Chimp Paradox tells me) So now after some reflection I have a fresh new outlook, to be committed and a fresh new goal marathon, Wolverhampton in September. Thanks to the physio I also have a fresh rested back and non achey leg 🙂

So I’m ready to go again, I ended my rest period on Friday with 5 miles in the gorgeous Malvern countryside, a good first run back, followed by a 10.5 mile Sunday morning run and I’m looking forward to starting my new schedule tomorrow with 6 miles 🙂

Sometimes a little rest from running, some riding and some reflection obviously helps you to re-boot!!! Well it’s worked for me 🙂 do you think it could work for you?